To the Noble Sangha

Having just read Chris Randol's lovely, full description of the visit of the XVIIth Gyalwa Karmapa to Boulder this last weekend, I am inspired to add a few reflections.

I am hardly an authority on the visit, not having worked on it, and having attended only two events, but the events I witnessed were overwhelmingly beautiful. All the sanghas intermixed for the first time in recent memory--since His Holiness Khyentse Rinpoche's tour of the major centers, following the Vidyadhara's Paranirvana in 1987. Macky Auditorium was filled with older and younger vajra brothers and sisters, and many newer people, who--you could tell by the look on their faces and their brief comments--were amazed and delighted by the radiance of what they had just experienced. Over 4,000 people saw His Holiness in one day here.

His Holiness's manifestation was indescribably harmonious, precise, leonine, awake; he has a thorough education; he answered the questioner beyond the question; he showed great humor and didn't pretend to know any special "secrets" (as he put it), as the Vidyadhara did. At one point His Holiness said that, while doing visualization practice of deities with many heads and arms would be difficult, in the future it would be easy for him to visualize us. He was very loving, and very easily so.  He said that nothing could stop him from returning to us in the future. Many tears were quietly flowing.

I sensed a great relaxation descend over the larger community, now that the unifying principle of His Holiness' enlightenment has once again been made apparent. And I sensed a great sadness at the same time somehow. The Vidyadhara said, "sadder and sadder," apparently referring to how one progresses on the path. In any case, whatever wounds one has sustained are brought to light in such gentle, wakeful air. Maybe this is an old warrior's observation, or maybe it is always true--heaven knows.

"May the great mind mandala of Mahamudra be present!"

-Bill Karelis

On remembering the Karmapa

I know we have but a little time
I love to watch you walk in
from the field, bent to some task
the smell of russian olive blossoms
collected in a circle of breeze
contented sounds of beautiful
feeding birds, unseen, hidden
in lush foliage that towers
over the house
gray-green and muted yellow

there is nothing left to do
but to observe the deep purples
and the blues, the whites
of spring flowers uplifted
and here and there a red
or yellow against green foliage
the russet of the stucco wall
behind the flower beds

a wind comes up as
the sad and peaceful day declines
sunlight obliquely on the wall
illuminates its texture, the shadow
of a flower stem waving in harmony
the sounds of traffic
the motor of a bumblebee
browsing among the upright
purple stems

every thing
is as it is
there's no commanding it
no changing it
in tune and yet so far beyond
a restless heart that casts about
and finds no boundaries

still in my infancy
still learning
that this is where you live
at all times
this is what you breathe
with every breath
knowing I will give my life
to know this, is enough
in spite of all my failures
I will continue
knowing that we have
so little time

-Tom Edwards

The 16th

I had the good fortune to be living at Karme-Choling in the late seventies when Karmapa XVI stayed there for a week or so. We could go into the shrine room and sit there while he and his monks practiced. His combination of formality -- he was not the least bit sloppy or inattentive -- and complete relaxation was a transmission in itself. I learned how to practice.

My long distance experience of Karmapa XVII is of that same place unchanged since my first guru yoga, regardless of the number.

Cheers,
Mark [Szpakowski]

Karmapa 16th story

Service Visions of Karmapa -- the 16th

May 16, 2008

by Carol Johnstone

Just woke up from a dream about monks ? monks travelling ? and admonitions ? "Don't wear sleeveless blouses," Don't look the Karmapa in the eyes," "Do the 'Kagyu slump" (hunched over, hands in anjali ? palm-to-palm at heart height). With the visit of His Holiness, the Gyalwa Karmapa 17th, I can't help but remember serving his predecessor, the 16th. I am however, not entirely sure about the dates. I'm kind of old now and I may have mixed timings up, but the events themselves are accurate. This is my best guess.

1974: His Holiness made his first visit to the United States. I had been a buddhist for only a few years ? I count it from 1972, when I first heard Trungpa Rinpoche give a talk at the Newman Centre in Berkeley, on how he'd made the Western world his guru. Before that I was a Hindu with Ananda Marga for three years. I very much appreciated the buddhist view on the truth of suffering. It felt like straight talk at last.

Blue and grey standing and sitting hours in halls outside the suite at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco ? a pit stop for the Karmapa on his way from Tibet, via China, to Boulder. My first shifts as a Dorje Kasung, when they let the women join, because there weren't enough bodies on the ground to cover the visit like we wanted to.

But, I missed what I call the "mysto zappo" of Hinduism. One of my fears when I became a Buddhist was that I would fall into Samadhi (an ecstatic kind of trance state) and fall over in the middle of doing Shamatha (regular mindfulness awareness meditation) and embarrass myself. The Regent (who had been a Hindu himself before he was a Buddhist) in a later interview told me that if I did, so what? Just label it thinking and continue with the out-breath. Good advice.

I saw the Black Crown ceremony for the first time in 1976, wherein the Karmapa manifests as The Buddha of Compassion, Chenrezig. I was very curious about this Black Crown Ceremony. It was held in a large warehouse in the wharf district of San Francisco. When His Holiness put on the Black Crown, it was like, but more powerful than, a mudra kind of ceremony that Ananda Murti (head of Ananda Marga) did. I think a major difference is that Ananda Marga did not have a lineage per se, especially compared to the 2,500 year old tradition of the Buddha dharma. His Holiness embodied compassion and a hair-raising kind of emptiness that's hard to describe. After that, I felt like I'd come home. Not only did Shambhala Buddhism have the Four Noble Truths, but it also had the mysto-zappo aspects that made it complete for me.

Later. Milarepa time. Bay Area. His Holiness, Trungpa Rinpoche, and the Vajra Regent are all coming to town. His Holiness stayed at a Ms. Hitchcock's four-story (including basement) mansion in Pacific Heights. Ms. Hitchcock (it's rumoured that her claim to fame was that she'd once slept with JFK) made a condition that we couldn't remove anything form her home and that she wanted everything put back in the same condition and place she left it in. That meant we inventoried and videotaped her whole house, labelling and numbering things down to the perfume bottles on her dresser. It meant building a false wall and moving her living room furniture behind it, so we could create an audience room (with throne of course). She also wanted the two fake flies copulating on the ceiling to remain there. Don't know what we did with that. It meant double-sticky taping yellow satin over the naked-dancing-nymph wall-paper in what would be His Holiness' bathroom on the third floor. It meant an awful lot of sewing of yellow satin, far as that goes. I went up to the third floor once during the visit on some errand and one of the monks offered me a chose-up viewing of the black crown. It's quite magnificent.

From Wikipedia: "When the 5th Karmapa, Dezhin Shegpa, met the Chinese Emperor Yung Lo, the Emperor, through his devotion and spiritual realization, was able to perceive Karmapa in the Sambhogakaya form of Vajradhara (Tib. Dorje Chang), wearing a black crown on his head. The Karmapa explained to the Emperor that he could see the 'Vajra Crown', the power-field of wisdom-energy that always stays above the Karmapa's head. The emperor offered to have a physical replica made so that others could receive its blessing. A crown encrusted with precious stones and topped by a huge ruby was commissioned, and using this, the 5th Karmapa started the tradition of the Black Crown Ceremony which was performed by successive Karmapa incarnations up to the time of the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje."

Serving. We'd had lessons in Tibetan serving styles. We would take turns being served and serving great dinners. You will probably be familiar with the classic western style ? linen table cloth, napkin folded on the left. Salad fork, dinner fork on left, coffee spoon, soup spoon on the right with a water glass to the upper right of the dinner plate, perhaps a butter knife laid horizontally above the plate. Serve from the left, remove from the right. We learned how to use a large spoon and fork chopstick style, held in the right hand to serve from a platter or bowl held in the left or from a tray held by a fellow server. Tibetan style was a bit different and in our ecologically correct era will seem rather excessive. The rule was that the plate or bowl was never to be left empty of food. Having been raised with the spectre of starving Armenians (might be Darfurians now) haunting the dinner table, I had learned to eat everything placed before me. Eating this Tibetan way was almost liberating, i.e., only eating as much as I was hungry for.

Werner Erhardt, the erstwhile EST guru, also hosted His Holiness during this time. We'd heard that he put HH up in a house and said something like, "are you hungry? Help yourself to anything in the fridge." And served him Coke in a can. Quite a contrast to what has become known as the Golden Cage" style of service done by us. However, His Holiness didn't appear to care one way or the other for himself. Rinpoche gave a talk about EST I recall at which I think Mr. Erhardt was present. Rinpoche began the talk with "I'm sorry to tell you, but there's no 'It,'" which was a goal of EST training to "get It."

Trungpa had really worked hard himself to set the serving standard we used, showing the way by example, overseeing construction, checking all the details. In the end Rinpoche offered us, his students, to His Holiness. For us, it was a gesture of the trust he had in us to represent him even if he weren't there.

The Regent stayed in another, smaller mansion a few blocks away in Pacific Heights. It only had two stories. I remember doing a 12-hour shift in the entry hall (that turned into 13 hours) managing to almost memorize the Japanese warrior sculpture that hung on the wall opposite my seat (outside the guest bathroom). Coming on shift early in the morning, we could get an "OT special" (OT = Osel Tendzin, the Vajra Regent's buddhist name). An OT special consisted of two eggs, bacon, an English muffin, orange juice, and coffee. Yum. I did do a serving shift with him, bringing in a fully loaded soup bowl and having him draw me down for a kiss (don't ask me why) and gently tipping the soup onto the table and his cigarette case. Stuck with kasungship after that.

Trungpa Rinpoche was staying in a very small two-room suite at the Miyako Hotel in Japan town ?evidently his favourite. I did many a shift outside his door in the hall ? popping up every time the elevator door opened, until the Hotel "dick" came up and asked me what I was doing outside this door. I said I was guarding this Tibetan teacher. He said "That's my job." I said stubbornly, "Well, I have to do it anyway." He left me alone after that.

When Rinpoche left his room, I would wait until he descended in the elevator, then go in and empty the ashtrays and tidy up a bit, then run over to His Holiness' mansion and go on shift there, sometimes beating Rinpoche to the house. He'd give me a bit of a double take sometimes. I think we only had about 10 or 15 kasung for three households, plus events.

1980. The last visit of His Holiness to the Bay Area. He stayed in a "castle" type dwelling in the Berkeley Hills. It actually was made of stone and had internal stairways up the side of the wall with no railings. I went into his bedroom one time to clean. It was full of birds flying loose that he'd rescued or bought on his journey. He was renowned for his ability to speak with birds. He would also buy up all the live food at pet stores, like small fish, or crickets, and drive out to the country and set them free. I remember someone asked him if animals had "souls." The response, I think was ambiguous in good Buddhist form.

That's about it. I haven't been able to travel to see His Holiness the 17th, but hope to whenever he may come to the capital, here in Halifax. I heard the Black Crown is being held hostage at Hi Holiness' traditional monestary at Rumtek in Sikkim, until the issue of who the "real" Karmapa is resolved. This is a big sadness. It's an important part of the Kagyu tradition.

Brief report from Boulder

The 17th Gyalwa Karmapa has come and gone, and not seeing other dispatches, I offer this. He first arrived last Saturday around 2pm, straight from the airport, at the Shambhala Center, which looked pretty sparkling. He first blessed a children's audience, later saying he wished he had more time to play with them, and then went up to the shrine room where a packed house of invited guests celebrated an opening tea and rice ceremony. Sakyong Mipham welcomed the Karmapa, who said how happy he was to be in this very empowered shrine room, and in America, which has always had a resonance for him since he first heard of it when he was eight years old.

Quickly he was off to Naropa University for a quite verbal audience I'm told, dinner, and another reception at the St Julien hotel. Sunday was a celebration. Talks were at 10 and 2, and then there was a mixed sangha audience at 7. A flurry of emails went back and forth regarding too many or not enough tickets. Macky auditorium was packed for every event. It was hot, probably the warmest day of the year so far, apparently quite a contrast from wet New York.

Pema Chodron introduced the morning talk, Lady Diana the afternoon, both extremely moving, and so graceful. Diana remembered Trungpa Rinpoche not coming home or sleeping for days before the first Karmapa visit except for a catnap in his office, inspecting every last bit of satin that adorned the walls and teaching his students by example how to express devotion. Ponlop Rinpoche introduced the evening sangha audience with much self-deprecating humor, downplaying his tireless work to host the Karmapa, joking that he was merely the 'manager' of this grand tour. There was a sense of many Kagyu sanghas having worked together, well.

HHK spoke again of his strong connection to America, which gave us pause over these days to contemplate that his predecessor had died in Zion, Illinois. One talk was about the environment. He said that without minding the external environment and keeping it healthy, one would have much difficulty maintaining a healthy internal environment. He told a humorous story of being asked at age eight, 'you're the Karmapa, can't you stop the (relatively mild) earthquakes that shake underground almost every night?' Being eight, he wondered if the earthquakes were caused by large turtles moving around underground. So he addressed the turtles one day, declaring 'if you stop moving around so much I'll feed you milk. If you don't stop, things will be very difficult for you!' He fed them milk, and they stopped, for some years, only to begin again around the time he was making plans to leave for India. He also spoke of how he felt somewhat frustrated about his restricted movement in India, but his desire to be with us in the West combined with our aspiration to be with him created movement in the situation, allowing him to be here.

I wish I could remember more. Probably someone else does. After the audience there was a Tibetan community audience in the shrine room. The schedule was intense. Those in Seattle are in for a treat. The Karmapa is twenty two years old, but his maturity is timeless. His physical gestures are beautiful to watch, his sense of humor, and playful interaction with his interpreter, audience and the space are very alive. He speaks dharma with an ease and freshness and solidity that is intoxicating, and the hangover is wonderful. Now several days later there's another flurry of emails between those lucky enough to serve the Karmapa and his entourage, about how we all loved being with each other in that space so much that now we can't help but love one another. Such a brief affair, hopefully not a weekend fling but only the beginning of a long love affair with the teacher of teachers, guru of gurus.

Respectfully, Chris Randol

HH Karmapa at Karme-Ling Retreat Centre

In the small intimate shrine room of His Holiness's Lama House, Karmapa's presence filled the room and blessing waves permeated the atmosphere. Every person felt their heart connection as he met our gaze and spoke, telling us he was home. Our dharma activities had the power of his blessing. We were completely inspired by his warmth and radiance, and the support he offered. Renewed strength pulsated throughout my being. Weariness could rest in the energy and power of his compassionate blessings.

He had returned. His words and presence soothed the assembly, and memories of His Holiness 16th Karmapa flooded my heart as tears quietly burst forth.

Home, home at last in the heart-mind of the King.

Long live the King, Father of my Guru!

Karmapa Khenno!

Rina Otero, Karme-Ling Retreat Centre, May 22, 2008

Default Dharma

 

I've had a rather unintentional."career" in dharma.

I was ten, my Great Uncle gave me meditation instruction when I inquired about a photo of Suzuki Roshi on his shrine.

I was 16, the predecessor to "Dharmadhatu" house was on my way to school. I practiced with hippies asleep in the corner.

I saw the 16^th Karmapa by accident when I was in NY.

I took refuge by accident when visiting Boulder. Some friends and I were walking in a park where Kalu Rinpoche gave an impromptu ceremony we stumbled upon.

I met my teacher Ponlop Rinpoche in the early 1990s while walking down the Pearl St. Mall in Boulder and was I transfixed.

I moved to Seattle thinking I'd never see him again. In the mid 90s, he moved to Seattle.

Finally I had the opportunity to directly connect with the dharma, but I had to move far away to take sorely needed work. I mourned near the shrine at the then sangha house, Vajra Spot. A young practitioner came from behind to comfort me. She said "Philip, remember that no matter where you are, the guru is everywhere." I've not forgotten that advice.

I now live in the country. I'm a bit overworked with my arts related consulting business and I'm getting married in 3 weeks. Taking time to be near the Karmapa isn't in the equation. I've read the blogs and announcements and a bit of longing arises. But, yesterdayI took a walk up the mountain on our property, and bam, there was Orgyen Trinley Dorje hangin' out enjoying the view of the Shenandoah Mountains by our old oak!

Longing can be the best or the worst guru yoga. It is the best, because the guru is the vase from which we drink the dharma. Our longing for the guru betrays our real longing to achieve the realization of mind, driving us to study, contemplate and practice. But the guru doesn't have to be there for us to do this. It is bad when such longing is simply desire and attachment – a desire to become comfortable as if being consoled by mommy and an attachment to belief and sentiment.

The fortunate co-occurrences of my early encounters with dharma and guru taught me that karmic connection will happen if we are not attached to it. So, young Number Seventeen hung out with me by up Hickerson Mountain yesterday. He challenged the height and stature of our 250 year old oak. He seemed to like the not quite ripe cherries from our nearby orchard.

Philip S. Rosemond, May, 2008

Chicago and the XVI Karmapa...

Chicago Dharmadhatu had just a hand full of members, around 12, I think, but we rented a whole floor in the new Ritz Carlton Hotel and made the front page of the Chicago Suntimes and the Tribune.  The flag of Buhtan hung out in front with flags of all nations.  It was bitter cold, and Tom Ryken was the only kasung to make it in from Boulder because of a huge snowstorm in Nebraska.  It was the end of January and 25 degrees below zero. 

Jim Drescher and Gary Hubiak were leading us through the visit and setting up the household.  Karl Springer toured the living spaces in the Ritz and declared, "We don't have to touch this place!"  We let the French manager know that we would need a room for all of the Karmapa's birds and he dropped his clipboard as well as his jaw.  The Dharmadhatu members didn't sleep much for the enitre three days that he was with us--Peter and Marita, Susan, Frank, Joe Vest, Bob, Rick, so many names--I can't remember everybody now.   Some of us stayed in rooms on the hotel floor. Karmapa brought with him Jamgon Kongtrul and Ponlop Rinpoche as well as a party of young monks who had never seen America.  He got up before anybody else and made sure the monks hadn't been smoking in the closets! 

 

We served them, cooked for them, cleaned, made sure everybody got to the ceremonies and loved them all.  It was the greatest three days of my life (up until then!)  The Black Crown ceremony was fantastic.  We had an incredible collection of "disciples."  I remember the guy in the front row completely draped with scarlet satin.The kasung watch him closely.  Karmapa laughed and laughed as we all tried to do prostrations.  I burst into tears at just the sight of him, he was so beautiful. 

 

I could go on and on--perhaps the other members who were there could add some things. I'm going to see the "new one" tonight in Boulder.  I'm taking my daughter, Valerie, and my friend, Alice.  I am so excited that I could hardly sleep.  I am an "old dog", but it feels like the first time.

 

Love, Tamara Eric

my memory of a meeting with the 16th Karmapa- a true story

i was visiting the San Francisco Zen Center in 1973 or '74 staying with my friend Meredith Cleaves a student aspirant to be ordained, who lived nearby, across the street from 3rd and Page.  I used to hitchike or bus down and visit awhile and sit zazen.  We were girls from Eugene Oregon, with a genuine interest in meditation and buddhism.

Suddenly one morning we heard compelling horns blaring, and ran out on the street to see what was happening.

 

A big gold cadillac was pulling up in front of the Zen Center, Dharma flags on the front fenders, a beautiful gold brocade over the passenger seat, where an apparently old Lama was being helped out of the car.

Persons on either side helped him stand as his legs seemed stiff or tottery, he seemed to me very old as tho' he'd spent a long life in meditation pose, but i was very young.

 

 

Tickets had been sold somewhere downtown which came with a wonderful fotograf of him when he was young and wearing turned up shoes and the Black Hat, five dollars, for admission to the Black Hat Ceremony he was giving later in a big warehouse building down by the water.  We knew him as the Karmapa or Black Hat Buddha.

 

 

I stood and watched on the sidewalk as monks in maroon robes, who i recall were the ones lining the steps up to the Center and playing the long Tibetan horns, and were from Trungpa Rinpoche's place in Colorado; and foreign Tibetan monks in gold robes i felt very shy around, who were with the Karmapa, and the zens in black, a small cluster out front on the sidewalk as i looked on.

 

The tall Japanese master of ceremonies from the Zen Center came down the steps and as they bowed and smiled in welcome, he pulled out a little silver or gold bell and so did the Karmapa and they spoke to each other in bells, having what seemed to be a complete conversation.

 

Then the Karmapa was taken up the stairs to a private tea with the masters of the place. The doors closed.

 

Suzuki Roshi was not alive at that time, but the Mrs. Suzuki was. I sat next to her in the zendo once and could feel the depth of her oceanic meditation practice.  For times of chanting they gave a card to hold and read the chants; some in phonetic Japanese and some in English.  This one I never forgot and still use:

 

ALL BUDDHAS, TEN DIRECTIONS, THREE TIMES

WISDOM BEYOND WISDOM
MAHA PRAJNA PARAMITA

 

Later at the wharf  he gave his hundred or thousand OM MANI PADME HUM ceremony of blessing and put on the Hat and transubstantiated.  Many had brought him flowers and scarves, he greeted and blessed all in the line to go by him at the conclusion.

 

I had made a hundred nice large copies of the foto taken so long ago even then, of the young 16th Karmapa and gave them away to friends.  Somewhere i may still have one.  They said he visited on that first visit to the States,  the Tail of the Tiger Zen Community in Vermont the SF Zen Center and the Hopi Chief and Nation which he had just come from and they said he made it rain for the Hopi in their drought.

 

And then one day decades later in Seattle i saw in a bookstore window near the UW, a young Karmapa on the cover....a beautiful book from Snow Lion Press; Music in the Sky.  He's back!  And now i have a ticket to see him and he is giving a Chenrezig ceremony at the Paramount June 1st in Seattle.  It seems to be the same ceremony as was given so long ago but now the ceremonial and meaningful Black Hat may be in Chinese hands, i do not know but it was only a cloth hat many hundreds of years old and maybe wore out....

Mayhap someone good will make the young Karmapa a new Hat.

 

sincerely Gretchen Adele aka Helenighthawk

blog - posts - for speakers who can't (or don't) write

IFChronicles viewers/readers have something to share

BUT who can't or don't type (for whatever valid reason)

THEN I have a solution… telephone and talk – I’ll type it up.

 

Alan Kelly, contributor/supporter of Chronicles

www.VerbatimIT.com

802-578-3789

Black crown

I'm looking forward to seeing HHK this Saturday. I've been hoping he might perform the Black Crown ceremony, but a friend told me today that neither HH nor the 'other' Karmapa have performed a Black Crown ceremony because of continuing legal battle over ownership of the Crown. And come to think of it, I've never seen pictures of the 17th with the Crown.

about the Karmapas